Morgan County Elk Foundation chapter raises $33,000

Funds conserve natural habitats for elk, other animals

This year's Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation banquet was as successful as last year, netting $33,000 for the cause.

That was up from $25,000 last year.

It went more smoothly this year, said Foundation Regional Director Ryan Kaiser. He said he heard a lot of good comments and people saying they wanted to come back this year.

The banquet was held at the Morgan County Fairgrounds events center, and people were all over it to take part in the games and dinner.

The Elk Foundation's mission is to ensure the future of elk, other wildlife and their habitats. It is committed to conserving, restoring and enhancing natural habitats, promoting the sound management of free-ranging elk and educating the public about the value of conservation, hunting and wildlife management.

To date, the foundation has conserved or enhanced more than 6 million acres of habitat, which is the size of 12 Great Smoky Mountains National Parks, according to the organization's literature.

That amounts to about a square mile a day since the organization started.

RMEF has restored wild elk to four states where they had been absent for more than 100 years. When the foundation began in 1984, 550,000 elk roamed North America. Today, there are well over a million wild elk, but every day another 5,000 acres of elk habitat disappears forever -- replaced by sprawl and concrete.

Funding is allocated to specific projects by a state RMEF committee, which works in tandem with agencies such as Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the Colorado Division of Forestry.

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That partnership can stretch each dollar raised by another $8 to $10, making it go even further, Kaiser said.

The committee looks at the best value for the money. It might buy land at $100 an acre or $50 an acre, or look at other ways to protect habitat, such as helping clear out invasive species from an area or make an area less prone to wildfire, he said.

Last year, the Morgan County organizational committee won the Outstanding Committee Award, which is given to committees that have a net profit of at least 60 percent of the gross, Kaiser said.

Scott and Sonya Rosenthal, left, came from Parker to help out at the Rocky Mountain Elks Foundation banquet Saturday. Scott is the Colorado volunteer state chair and goes to all the foundation banquets in Colorado to help.
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Since this year's banquet grossed about $50,000 and netted $33,000, it will likely win the award again, he said.

Also, Jack, Colby and Jeremy Horton became Life Members at the banquet.

This is a serious mission, but those at the banquet seemed to be having fun with the many activities on the agenda.

Two freezers full of meat were raffled off, and that included the freezers themselves, and a whole pig's worth of pork.

Tickets were also sold for hunting trips and to win various rifles or a handgun.

A live auction run by Robert Christensen of Associate Auctioneers of Colorado offered chances to bid on many different items, including hunting trips, binoculars, handmade quilts, rifles, an aspen wood bedstead with a quilt, an aspen wood trunk, flasks, chests, a number of pieces of artwork, frame packs, watches, custom knives and a number of other items.

People at the Rocky Mountain Elks Foundation banquet could put raffle tickets in buckets next to prizes in hopes of wining them.
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A big draw was a number of raffles that offered things like special hunting rifles, handguns, binoculars, shot glasses, an elk call, hunting knives, a rifle sling, meat bags, a turkey decoy, a digital scouting camera, a gun cleaning kit, a deep fryer, small fishing rods, a spotlight and much more.

This year, there was a kids' table, which offered a .22 rifle, a decoy, books, packs, a BB gun, a sling shot, a fishing rod and more.

There were some fun games, too, such as the giant dice game.

Kiefer Olson of Hillrose shows what was in the freezer that was raffled off at the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundationâ s annual banquet Saturday. A whole pigâ s worth of pork was in the freezer.
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People paid and rolled the dice for raffle tickets, a ticket for each point on the dice.

A cap-toss game gave as many raffle tickets as caps that landed on the points of a set of elk antlers, and people automatically won one of three types of knives.

A rose raffle gave a rose and a chance to win a small, pink handgun.

A beer pong game -- minus the beer -- offered the chance to win raffle tickets by bouncing ping pong balls into cups.

For more information or to join the foundation, call Kevin Ross at 970-381-5172 or Jeremy Holt at 970-381-7247. The local group could also use people on the area foundation committee.

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